Though the true intention of Halloween is to scare ourselves silly, many suggest that candy is responsible for our nation’s fixation on the spooky holiday.
In 2012, Americans spent $12.6 billion on chocolate alone, a USA Today article reported, and by 2019 that number will jump to $25 billion. But for those kids (or adult children) with Type 1 diabetes who go out trick-or-treating, it’s not about what sells; it’s about what you “can” and “can’t” eat, and how much. Throw in Halloween-themed “Fun Sizes,” and counting carbs becomes a confusing nightmare.
So here’s a candy carb chart from JDRF that you can print out:
(Chart is Fun Sized. Click on it to make it full sized.)
With this chart in mind, here are the 5 top-selling candies that you’re likely to come across this year, and their carb counts:
5. Kit Kats, which total 10 grams of carbs per Fun Size. If you do as their jingle suggests and “give it a break” into two pieces, it’s only 5 grams of carbs per chocolate wafer stick.
4. With over $300 million in sales, you’ll likely scrounge up some Hershey’s Mini chocolate bars, which contain about 5 grams of carbs each, on the door-to-door rounds.
3. Snickers are sure to make an appearance in the candy haul. With 10 grams of carbs, the Fun Size peanut-and-caramel chocolate bars are something to indulge in carefully.
2. With $500 million in sales, M&Ms, will surely be dropped into many a plastic orange pumpkin. The Fun Size chocolate packs contain 10 grams of carbs and the Fun Size peanut ones have 11.
1. Is it true that the peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio is better in the bigger pumpkin-shaped Reese’s cups than the regular-shaped ones? Hard to say, but the Hershey company raked in over half a billion dollars in Reese’s products overall. With a staggering carb count of 17 grams for the peanut butter pumpkin cups, it may be better to opt for a single cup of the standard-shaped ones, a 10-gram-carb alternative.
Happy Halloween! Trick-or-treat responsibly.
P.S. For the haters giving out Dots or Hot Tamales, my question is: Who you mad at? I’m sorry you weren’t held or loved as a child, but don’t take your rage out on the children.
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